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Abstract
This study implemented a school-based intervention aimed at improving coping flexibility, and to determine the intervention effects on coping and anxiety in children during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 692 first and second year of junior high school students (347 boys, 320 girls, and 25 neither) participated. Of the 19 classes first and second year of junior high school, 10 participated in the intervention in July 2021 and nine participated in January 2022. The results showed that the intervention program effectively reduced students' anxiety. With regard to coping, there was no change in "seeking support," a decrease in "problem avoidance," and an increase in "positive interpretation and recreation." The current intervention, which aimed at improving coping flexibility, was effective in reducing anxiety and promoting coping among junior high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic. In future it may be necessary discussed to reduce the burden on schools to accept outside experts by using information-technology equipment and other means to conduct the intervention remotely.
Keywords: COVID-19, school-based intervention, anxiety, coping, children.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable psychological impact on children and adolescents worldwide, including increasing the rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (Marques de Miranda et al., 2020). As of March 2020, 99% of Japanese public primary and junior high schools (in Japan, this refers to schools operated by prefectural and municipal governments) and 100% of national primary and junior high schools (in Japan, this refers to state-run elementary schools) were temporarily closed (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2020).
Subsequently, as of February 2022, the number of schools with temporary closures decreased significantly to 0.1% in public elementary and junior high schools, respectively (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2020). However, the situation remains unpredictable, with 15.4% of public elementary schools and 7.6% of public junior high schools reporting temporary grade or class closures (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2022). In a survey in Japan, 30%-40% of junior high school students reported responding to the pandemic with depression, insomnia, difficulty concentrating, and grief or fear (National Center for Child Health and Development, 2022). In a survey conducted during the declaration of a state of emergency in 2020, 43.7% of...